Consumers want speed - fashion brands need to deliver or fall behind. The need for speed trickles all the way down to product design. To stay in the game, brands need to fully transform their supply chains in order to streamline operations without sacrificing quality. From raw material order processes to supply chain visibility, brands have turned to technology to ensure flexibility, agility and visibility from conception to delivery.

Amber Road is excited to attend the 2018 Product Innovation Apparel Workshop in New York City from June 19 to 20. PI Apparel serves as a platform for technology and software providers to share the solutions that are disrupting the fashion, apparel and footwear industry.

Amber Road will kick off Day 2 of the conference with a Think Tank session: ‘There’s Money in the Material: Reducing Material Spend.’ Amber Road’s Gary Barraco, Director of Global Product Marketing, and Cheryl Layne, Customer Success Champion, will lead the session alongside Deckers Brands’ Director of Materials, John Graebin. The Think Tank will take place June 20th at 8:30AM on the second floor of the library in room 3.

Who knew? Avocados are one of the most complex products to ship internationally. They do not ripen on the tree, but once harvested they need to be handled with great care. Handlers delay the softening process by pre-cooling the fruit immediately after picking. Then during transportation, they need to be stored at optimal temperatures and shipped expeditiously so the cargo is at the desired stage of ripeness upon reaching destination. Who cares, though? Last year, the industry was buzzing about the first practical application of blockchain technology and avocados were the test product. Maersk, the global shipping giant, is expected to announce it is using IBM’s version of the blockchain to track the avocados, flowers, and machine parts it carries on its enormous cargo ships. The highly-sensitive, speed-critical product — the avocado — was at the center of the Maersk/IBM blockchain initiative, and an example of how this technology can be used to share traceability data to benefit global supply chains.

In today's global trade landscape, retailers and manufacturers need to ensure their products reach their customers in a timely manner with little to no production delays. Automation and visibility is key - but how exactly can you enable a seamless process from design to delivery?

In today’s fast moving supply and demand environment, agility and tight collaboration with the extended network of partners is paramount for retailers and manufacturers looking to stay ahead of the competition. However, when it comes to being agile, companies need to leverage a single platform that connects all of the parties and activities while also providing end-to-end visibility. Often touted as the “magic pill” for supply chain ailments, control tower visibility can provide the advantage of foretelling where issues will cause the chain to break when suppliers and service providers are globally distributed and disparate.

Speed-to-market has become the top market pressure for retailers. There are a few companies in the apparel industry that are turning heads with their transformative process changes. What can other industries or CPG manufacturers learn from the “fast fashion” leaders like H&M, Uniqlo, and Zara who are able to go from concept to shelf in weeks?